CwL On the Road Ep 2 – My Packing Hopes (two weeks out)

Okay. I thought I would just record this. A few weeks before we leave so that I can look back on it and also just keep myself accountable to the big dream. And the big dream right now in terms of what we’re taking with us for 5 months, is to go really as light as possible. 

So I had originally thought, yeah, I could do this with us all just having carry on luggage And then I thought, no. I don’t wanna give myself that stress. I will go as light as possible. And every child will have a carry-on sized bag as their luggage. But I’m not gonna stress myself out about, you know, not loading that onto a flight if we need to if it’s over the the kilo limit that that airline asks for. I just really want them to be able to carry their own bag.

And as we are going to summertime, It’s just definitely going to be possible. I say this now for them all to pack everything that they need. So they’ll have a pair of sneakers and a pair of sandals. They will have clothes enough for sort of maybe 6 or 7 days. And then there’s going to be a few extra bits and pieces for each of them. 

So because they still have to do school, while we go. They’re each taking an iPad. We have some games that we’re going to be taking with us, definitely some notepads and pens so they can journal. 1 of my daughters really loves drawing and art. So I just wanna be able to have not a whole stack of things, but there will be extras. You know, someone mentioned the other day In my Insta Stories, what about goggles for the kids? And I thought, that’s a brilliant idea. Well done. Thank you very much. Taking it. And running with it. 

There’s so much I still haven’t sorted out like, do we need to bring towels? Probably. What sort of towels should I get? I’ve still got quite a bit to figure out, but I would like to go as lean as possible. 

With myself, I have decided to get a larger sized backpack. Haven’t purchased it yet, so I haven’t been able to do any experimenting. But even for myself, I wanna be going as light as possible. Because I just can’t think of anything worse than lugging around a whole heap of stuff that I mostly will never use. But my issue right now is what are the things that I know I will wear again and again and again. That is the thing that I wanna get right. Because if I get that right, then I’ll be laughing all the way. But if I get that wrong, I’m at did I bring that? I bought that and I have nothing to wear with it. 

I certainly don’t want to be going to the shops or doing stuff like that. No, no. I’m not a shopper. I mean, sure. We might come across a few bits and pieces throughout the time, and I definitely wanna have space for that. But I really just want to keep things as simple as possible. And I’m like, well, What am I gonna wear. Do I need to bring a sports bra?

Oh,like, oh, no. If I go for a walk, I can just wear my bra. I’m not gonna I don’t run or anything. But what about Do I need to bring pajamas? Usually, I just sleep with an old t shirt. So do I just sleep in the t shirt that I’ve worn that day? I don’t like when my cold my shoulders are bare, but these are gonna be hot. But then in some places, there’ll be air conditioning and I’ll be cool. Maybe I should bring a long sleeve pajama top and short sleeve pajama top. But because we’re gonna be staying at people’s houses, I probably also need to wear pants. Maybe I should bring a nighty, and that’s an all in 1. 

So, you know, I can say right at this stage, that I wanna be going light. And I thought all I need is a pair of runners and a pair of sandals. And that will be fine. And then I’m like, oh, but what if I actually want to wear something nice? What about if it’s too cool for sandals? Do I need an extra pair of something? I don’t know. 

And because we are going to be seeing people, and we won’t just be hiking around in outdoor wear all the time. I wanna have something nice. But, like, nice in Ireland is probably going to mean something cooler than nice for Oktoberfest. We will be staying in Munich. And base there for a little bit. I just don’t know. And it’s summer, but that doesn’t mean it’s gonna be warm the whole time. Be real, Lisa. 

Oh, so many questions, but I’m hopeful. The kids are so much easier than me because I know what they wear. I know what they’re going to be putting on day in, day out. I feel pretty good about the kids, and it’s about also limiting the little extras that they’re gonna be taking. 

We had run into an issue, my daughter, my youngest, has Beary. And Beary is a life-sized bear. He’s really big. It’s actually from Ikea. And she bought him years ago years ago when we were at IKEA once. It was actually the January of 2020, no. 2021, I think it was. Yes. She was going into grade 1. It was the middle of the COVID years. And we went to Ikea. And I was thinking there’s a kid section in Ikea and I said to her I said to all of them, you can choose 1 thing from this section. And thanks for being great in Ikea and get me the freak out of here. 

So, of course, she was, like, 6 and just chose the biggest thing she could find. Chose the biggest thing, and it was this big bear, and she called him Beary. And ever since then, she has slept with him, wrapped around her every night. Like a security blanket. She took Beary to school every single day of grade 1. Well, when they actually went to school because, of course, that was a year of extreme intense lockdowns here in Melbourne. 

I mean, Beary is a person to her. Beary is real. Beary has feelings. Beary is like my fourth child. But Beary can’t come on the trip with us. And so when I was thinking about packing, I was like, what the hell? Like, what are we gonna do about Beary? She’s so attached. 

We’ve talked a lot about different things that we could do with Beary. What we’ve decided on is that she’s gonna bring something else or maybe 2 other little things that she loves, but we still haven’t worked out what she’s gonna put around her. At nighttime to go to sleep because it’s this action. It’s that she literally wraps his arms around her. It’s like he spoons her. And she loves it. It’s how she goes off to sleep. I’m thinking it will be 1 of my scarves, so we are starting to experiment with that at night at the moment. 

Anyway, 1 of the suggestions that I had was for Beary to maybe have his own holiday And Beary could go to someone’s house or multiple people here in Melbourne, and they could take photos of Beary doing fun things and, you know, where Beary’s sleeping and Beary in the sunshine and Beary in a jacket keeping warm in winter when we’re experiencing summer. And she thought that was a good idea. She thought, yeah. She doesn’t wanna risk Beary being taken away at an airport because we can’t get on a flight with him or something like that. Let’s just give Beary a good time. 

This is the plan so far. Right? And this is me trying to limit what we’re packing. Beary would literally need to be an extra carry on bag. And so she said, yeah. Alright. Let’s do this. 

She’s decided She’s chosen my parents’ house, and she’s chosen party boy’s house. If you are a long time listener, you’ll know he was my boyfriend for the last 4 years, and that’s where Beary’s gonna go. And Berry will be well taken care of getting his own holiday. And both of them have agreed that they’re going to take Beary on some adventures, take photos, send them through happy days. But let’s just wait and see. Once again, I’m optimistic. 

I am sitting here 2 weeks out from leaving feeling, yep, it’s all gonna come together. And I am gonna strip things back, and I am just gonna keep it to to bare minimum. Bare minimum. Thinking It’s gonna be summer, but right now in Melbourne, it’s so freaking cold that it’s very hard to believe I won’t need woolly socks and my beautiful winter boots. But apparently not. And I know that when we go over there, if we experience weather that we’re not prepared for, we can buy stuff. Or we could just go to op shops, grab the things that we need, and then we can leave them there again. 

There’s so many different solutions. I’m not getting caught up. On it, all I want to do is feel as prepared as possible, as streamlined as possible, so I just actually don’t have to think about it too much. And I wanna pack in a way where it doesn’t feel stressful to pack back up again. 

The first month, we are gonna be moving around a fair bit. It’s gonna be pacy. And then after that, it will be a lot different. So this first bit, I just need us to be able to have everyone be able to pack up their own things in a way where we’re not like sweating, trying to compress things down again, that’s not the vibe. 

You can follow along on my Insta Stories for all of the packing drama. In fact, just today, a pair of sandals arrived that I was recommended. So I’m gonna go check them out in a second. Not getting caught up on this, but also wanting to get it as lean as possible. And I am a massive, massive over packer in my normal life. So This is gonna be interesting. 

I will let you know how we go at the end. 

Most likely, I am gonna be sharing All of this stuff, on my stories, so follow me on Instagram at lisa court off, and you will see stuff there. Wish me luck.